Perch size distribution in Cascade

[bowhunter68]

Im surprised it went 3 pages i figured a page and a half it was headed for the ditch..

[No Trout Please]

Me to! I figured it'd be gone you guys are good people it's fun to have a little discussion once in a while! I gotta ask you again! You meet Sarah Palin yet? Ha Ha

[natebert]

If you read everyone's comments we all want the same thing with a few differences here and there and I like having discussions like this it's great lot of us are working during the week and thinking about fishing so this is as close as we can get till the weekend and it was civil I thought!

+1 to all of this
I want to catch a 20", 6lb perch and not have to paint stripes on a carp to do it!

Though I too fear a Cascade where it's filled with growth stunted 6-7' perch.   I wonder if we can get a ID F&G biologist to cough up thoughts/plans on that topic.  (Do they have any plans if it were to happen?)

[No Trout Please]

You would think they have some kind of plan B if it starts to get to stunted but I'm not really sure! I hope you do catch a 6 pound perch that'd be way cool! You also gave me a good idea next time my buddy falls asleep in his shanty I'll put a carp painted up like a perch on his rod and then start yelling he's getting a bite and have him reel that in! Ha Ha

[fowl_language]

Ok.

I've held my tongue long enough...

Lake Cascade is amazing, plain and simple.  It is a majestic place that few get to experience, ask the In-Depth guys. It really is, there are few places in this world, even fewer in the lower 48 that offer this kind of beautiful scenery and amazing fishing.  Frankly, in my limited experience there is nothing compared to this on hard-water.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves, Lake Cascade is amazing in producing a consistent 12-13" Yellow Perch population, but it consistently puts out the Idaho state record, which for Idaho is a huge perch! But for the lower 48 states it is big, a pig of a perch, but not jaw dropping. The reason Cascade is on the map right now is because it has been talked about for this reason.  Not because of the size will break anything other than a STATE record. Even though it was a world record, it was a tip-up world record which is a record that normally pan-fisherman from across the lower 48 just don't do.  It is impressive, and I am really happy for Tia, when I've met her a few times, she is a typical young lady with a great love for being in the outdoors with her father which is admirable for both her and her father.

I'm not trying to say that these are small perch, they're not, I love Lake Cascade, I love the city of Cascade, I really do.  The people, the place, everything about this fishery is amazing. But to estimate that this lake will produce anything over 4lbs is slightly ridiculous to me.  I think this year has taught us a thing or two.  Cascade is a typical lake of the Inland Northwest, it is anchored by zooplankton, that is why it is managed as a trophy trout fishery, is this bad? No, I don't think so, it produces quality rainbow trout every trip (less so now then previously) but it does produce good trout.  But...here's the big but...Trophy perch fisheries have secondary or tertiary forage, ie. minnows.  Western lakes, especially western reservoirs do not, large perch don't get massive without a suitable forage to get them that way.  Many of you will argue that Cascade Perch are ferociously cannibalistic, and yes they are, but they are that way because there is no middle ground minnow in the system to subsidize those larger fish past the 3 lb weight.

Do I think that Lake Cascade will produce a fish close to 3 lbs, of course, but will it produce a monster to break the midwest hold, I doubt it very much.
Will this stop me from coming out to Cascade every few years, of course not.  The people I've met, the friendships I've made will undoubtedly last a life time, will my affinity for Idaho ever go away...I highly doubt it, you folks live in the most amazing place on earth, I can't say it any better than a buddy of mine from the upper mid-west said when I first moved out to Idaho, "You sir, you're in god's country now".  There is more to Lake Cascade then just large perch, I implore every one that has this in their backyard to enjoy it and take it all in.  It's not just the size or the number of Yellow Perch that's important, it's where and how you catch them.

[No Trout Please]

Well said! I'm not out to catch records so if your right and 2 pounders is all it'll ever produce you won't find many people that are going to complain about that!

[No Trout Please]

We might never get huge perch like back east but how many big elk and mule deer does Wisconsin have?😜

[natebert]

You guys make me find the coolest stuff out there.  (I'd never thought about bigger perch, my 6lb comment was more of a joke about the carp we have out here.)

But here are some interesting numbers:
https://www.landbigfish.com/staterecords/fishrecords.cfm?order=weight&sortorder=desc&ID=39

I wonder if there is a more up-to-date place to look up this info...

[idfishnhunt]

You guys make me find the coolest stuff out there.  (I'd never thought about bigger perch, my 6lb comment was more of a joke about the carp we have out here.)

But here are some interesting numbers:
https://www.landbigfish.com/staterecords/fishrecords.cfm?order=weight&sortorder=desc&ID=39

I wonder if there is a more up-to-date place to look up this info...

That's a reality check for sure.  Just go out and have fun and fish.  That reservoir is huge, I can't believe people think they are really making that big of an impact on it...not during winter anyways.

[spud bar]

You guys make me find the coolest stuff out there.  (I'd never thought about bigger perch, my 6lb comment was more of a joke about the carp we have out here.)

But here are some interesting numbers:
https://www.landbigfish.com/staterecords/fishrecords.cfm?order=weight&sortorder=desc&ID=39

I wonder if there is a more up-to-date place to look up this info...

That's interesting.. The last 3+ lb perch recorded was over 30 years ago. I'd say Cascade is doing quite well right now with the sizes still being caught with regularity.

[No Trout Please]

So we all know how popular perch fishing is from Cascade so here's a quick question! Take for example lost valley reservoir that has a bunch of stunted fish! What if you put a couple thousand 8-10 inch perch and they preyed on all those stunters all the while being available for the fisherman all the while growing! Ok so I know that they will also breed and again stunt out again but I figure it'd take a few years while still fisherman catching them and then when it finally does happen again just repeat the process! I think this might work but I don't know for sure! Sounds good in theory!

[Bigggcountry]

Well said Elliot!!!!  I can only imagine what it would be like if they had some shiners or smelt to eat. 

[hooknhunter]

So we all know how popular perch fishing is from Cascade so here's a quick question! Take for example lost valley reservoir that has a bunch of stunted fish! What if you put a couple thousand 8-10 inch perch and they preyed on all those stunters all the while being available for the fisherman all the while growing! Ok so I know that they will also breed and again stunt out again but I figure it'd take a few years while still fisherman catching them and then when it finally does happen again just repeat the process! I think this might work but I don't know for sure! Sounds good in theory!

I'm pretty sure that if that would work, then fish and game would've done it already.  But perhaps not. 


Personally, I've been wondering why they don't put a few Tiger Muskies, Tiger Trout, or even Small Mouth Bass in there and then not allow harvest on those species until the perch are under control.  Seems like it would've been fairly cheap to at least give it a try before spending all that money to poison.  If you have to poison later, then do it, but it wouldn't cost any more to do it later than it does to do it now........... 

[No Trout Please]

That would also work! Don't eradicate the perch capitalize on them and find a balance

[No Trout Please]

They got the majority of the squawfish out of Cascade and that made a huge difference now they just need to try and get the carp out of lake Lowell and put some perch back in there! If their worried about money just let me use one of those boats with the electric probes and a dump truck and we could put a dent in the population!

[hooknhunter]

And I'm very confident that sportsmen would be more than willing to volunteer the man power, too.  I've suggested sportsmen as the manpower for fish and game projects to game officers before and they pretty much blew me off.  We could be a very powerful force if they'd let us contribute more.  Under direction and permits, of course.

[No Trout Please]

You have to find the right person in the right position willing to consider a project like this! I'm sure there would be no shortage of volunteers

[Silverbullet555]

I need to hook up with some of y'all for a trip up there. I've only ice fished it twice and would like to learn more about it.